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This number will increase as Cannes, Venice and other summer festival titles are added to the mix alongside studio releases.

French cinemas reopen this Wednesday (May 19) after lying dark for six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country’s 100-plus distributors rushing to set theatrical dates for an estimated backlog of 400 stalled films.

As a result, French cinemagoers will have access to the richest and most diverse offering of films in the world over the coming months, spanning festival titles, local mainstream comedies and dramas, world cinema and studio blockbuster fare, as the summer advances.

As of May...

Bac Films has closed several deals on Bernard Stora’s “The Case,” a psychological thriller set in the South of France starring Niels Arestrup. The film had its market premiere at the UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris, a five-day showcase of French movies wrapping on Jan. 20.

Arestrup stars in “The Case” as Luc Germon, a famous lawyer whose new client, Gilles Fontaine (Patrick Bruel) is a powerful business man suspected of having acquired his magnificent property on the French Riviera in a dubious condition. The movie was picked up for Spain (Vercine Distribución), China (Huanxi Media), Taiwan (Av-Jet) and Benelux (Athena Films).

Paul Hamy (“Sibyl”) and Michel Bouquet (“Renoir”) complete the cast. “The Case” was produced by Jpg Films and Bac Films which will release the movie during the second semester of this year.

During the UniFrance Rendez-Vous, Bac Films also hosted the market premieres of “Yakari, A Spectacular Journey,...

A cinematic puzzle and a filmic detective piece, Serge Bromberg’s examination of a world-class filmmaker’s catastrophic, never-finished production fascinates and dazzles. If the particulars of H.G. Clouzot’s experimental epic of internal torment remain clouded, the astonishing visuals he created are a total knockout. Working with hours of uncut dailies and precise collaborator memories, Bromberg gives us the most interesting filmic autopsy on record. Incredible stuff!

Inferno

(L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot)

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

2009 / Color & B&W / 1:78 widescreen / 100 min. / L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot / Street Date February 6, 2018 / Available from Arrow Video 34.95

Starring: Romy Schneider, Serge Reggiani, Bérénice Bejo, Jacques Gamblin, Dany Carrel, Jean-Claude Bercq, Mario David, Catherine Allégret, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Gilbert Amy, Jacques Douy, Jean-Louis Ducarme, Costa-Gavras, William Lubtchansky, Thi Lan Nguyen, Joël Stein, Bernard Stora, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Bernard Blier, Inès Clouzot, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Lino Ventura, Burt Lancaster.

Cinematography: Jérôme Krumenacker, Irina Lubtchansky...

Danièle Delorme and Jean Gabin in 'Deadlier Than the Male.' Danièle Delorme movies (See previous post: “Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 Actress Became Rare Woman Director's Muse.”) “Every actor would like to make a movie with Charles Chaplin or René Clair,” Danièle Delorme explains in the filmed interview (ca. 1960) embedded further below, adding that oftentimes it wasn't up to them to decide with whom they would get to work. Yet, although frequently beyond her control, Delorme managed to collaborate with a number of major (mostly French) filmmakers throughout her six-decade movie career. Aside from her Jacqueline Audry films discussed in the previous Danièle Delorme article, below are a few of her most notable efforts – usually playing naive-looking young women of modest means and deceptively inconspicuous sexuality, whose inner character may or may not match their external appearance. Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (“Open for Inventory Causes,” 1946), an unreleased, no-budget comedy notable...

Chicago – What truly defines a master of suspense? Is it the skill of keeping an audience’s attention rapt with slick pacing, elaborately designed set-pieces, and a whopper of a twist ending? Or is it simply the ability to viscerally convey the psychological trap of a character until the audience feels confined within it, and every onscreen gasp, scream and shiver becomes the viewer’s own?

Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of the few filmmakers in cinema history who not only warrants comparison to the legendary Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, but deserves to be considered his equal (both men were greatly fond of storyboards). Though he only made a quarter as many pictures during his career, which spanned nearly four decades, he made some of the most influential and spellbinding thrillers ever made, including two renowned masterpieces, 1953’s “The Wages of Fear” and 1955’s “Diabolique.” The latter film certainly...

Optimum continues its mission to release some of the best back catalogue classics on Blu-ray in September with another burst of titles from their Studio Canal Collection. Next up are The Third Man, Delicatessen, Mulholland Drive, The Graduate, Le Cercle Rouge, The Pianist and Breathless. It's a hugely eclectic collection of superb modern and not-so-modern cinema with surely something for anyone who possesses even a hint of filmic discernment.

All include a host of exclusive extras, with input from some serious names from both industry and academic circles which put those filler heavy packages to shame. And, if previous releases from the label are anything to go by, the transfers will be top notch too.

The titles above are released on 13th September 2010 through Optimum Home Entertainment.

Extras and tech specs are as follows - there's a lot, so take a deep breath:

The Third Man

 Extras:

Sd, New or...